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Monthly Archives: October 2016

I cannot wait! I’m champing at the bit to move forward and start work on my novella for NaNoWriMo!

I’ve never done it before, so I am enthused by the challenge to write 50k words again (though my first two novel drafts (From Ash Wednesday to Memorial Day) it was almost 200k words. So I think I can do it. My hardest task I think will be shutting up and keeping it a Novella.

Last week I did the loose plot and picked the names. I checked with my Guru for all things Norse for some nice new terms to use and verify some usage of concepts, and I think this will be pretty cool.

Now… what worries me.

“The Price of Mendacity” (Working Title) is going to be nearly a Shakespearian trage-comedy, not the “Epic Christian Fantasy Adventure” the rest of Reimarsoga is going to be. Sort of the same way “Ran” is a sublime but total rip off of “King Lear”. So if someone reads this as an introduction to my work, it will be to my setting and my style, but not to the series. I hope that doesn’t ruin any reader’s expectation. I dunno. I’m overthinking. Someone tell me to shut up here.

As a side note, I started listening to the Librevox version of Jack London’s “The Sea Wolf”. Man! I forgot how great a book that really was! I am just enthralled with London’s writing style. It’s of a similar subject matter of Melville but instead of wrist-slittingly difficult to comprehend, it’s far more accessible to my eye. Oh well,

I really hope that writing this will also distract me from waiting to edit from my beta readers. I am going bonkers waiting, with my inner Veruca Salt screaming “Make time go faster!”. I have gotten one preliminary response back from one reader, whom I will share his answer to one of the questions on the Beta Questionnaire:

Are there enough stakes/tension throughout to make the book a “page turner”?

Yep! Something fun for Friday! Here are the current (always subject to change) Chapter Titles. See if you can figure out what the heck is going on?!

Reimarsoga:

1. Winning the Battle, Losing the War

2. Brother Finn Arrives

3. Determining the Price, Choosing of the Children

4. For the Greatest Good, They Leave Home

5. The Long Ride Through Night

6. Good Reason Does Not Always Comfort

7. Meiderhvall

8. Brother Finn’s Heresy Revealed

9. Like Chattel Across the Water

10. A Raging Storm Shall Not Dissuade

11. And God Shall Manifest His Mighty Hand

12. After the Wreck

13. The Bitter Prices of Salvation

14. Condemnations, Commendations, & Questions

15. Bequeathed An Infernal Inheritance

16. Brambles & Thorns in the Night

17. Escaping the Conflagration

18. Craftily, Our Sins Come To Ravage Us

19. Hooks of the Manitou

20. An Ancient Evil Named

21. Exorcism

22. Celebration on the Beach

23. Sailing through Tangled Webs

24. On the Precipice of Disaster

25. Run Aground

26. Escape From Ogimaak Mikwam Island

27. Lost Lambs

28. Imprisoned

29. A Change in the Weather

30. Lies and Monsters

31. The Wrath of Ogimaak Mikwam

32. From All Sides, Enemies Arise

33. Stirring the Ashes

34. Brother Finn Tenders Hope In A Bleak World

35. Ascending to Saint Martin’s

36. Into Exile / Arrival at Kynligrspiejl

Of course, realize some of these titles are accurate but slightly misleading or contrary. But hopefully, this has you curious as to what is contained inside these headings enough to go running out and want to buy buy buy!…

Chapters 27-33 are now done for the 3rd draft. It has been quite the brain bending push. So much of it went smooth like I wanted with little different from what I wanted to say (an very rare thing) but then other parts made me want to go bald with frustration.

Only 3 chapters left and I can send it off to the beta readers.

That said, I would love to get a beta reader or two who are not necessarily Christian. Not that I wish them to tear after the theology, but to give me a different perspective. Of course I still need them to present their assessment before Thanksgiving (that’s Nov 24th to those of you not in America).

For those who have finished reading my Second edit… the third edit, having it read out loud, even through a cruddy “Text to Speech” program has been quite revealing. The “Ear Clunk” is rapidly vanishing, and the story has gotten so much smoother. I did 7 chapters tonight, meaning only 9 more to go before Friday, and barring some major disaster, I will be able to make my Beta Reader deadline without much issue.

Get away from me unexpected threat to my happiness! That was not a challenge for you to try and meet!

The process has been a surprise as well. Writing has given me two new expressions:

“Vonnegut colored crayon”. Meaning that I often feel like I am writing with a crayon in my mouth. Some of the text has been bad and have been grateful for the rewrite to fix it. To my Alpha Readers who have been so supportive… I am so sorry.

“Nose to Bark.” I coined this expression when talking to one of my alpha readers and trying to explain I was so close to my creation, it was like having my nose pressed to a tree, so I could not see the forest around me.

On a positive note, I got this back from one of my alpha readers after he completed the 2nd edit alpha read.

I finished your book last night! Quite an exciting ending, especially those last few chapters! I was so tired after all the work at the cottage that I could hardly stay awake until I started reading. It kept me engaged and I was wide awake when I finished…

…You are to be commended for a rather prodigious piece of work. I don’t know where this going or where it might take you, but you deserve much respect as a writer.

Needless to say, this came from someone who’s opinion means a great deal to me, and is not a fantasy fan… ergo, I’m one very happy person.

Furthermore, this also gave me the experience of seeing this book with my nose no longer on the bark, having the computer read it to me to catch the most egregious errors. What I learned is that the first chapters may not be as good, but the ones done latest are significantly better and smoother running. Not only that, I did not realize the story could be as engaging and compelling as compared to when I originally wrote this bad boy. I had to force myself to stop editing because I wanted a fresh mind for the last 9 chapters, which, if fortunate, will be done tomorrow. If not… Friday. But it’s getting done!

The Price of Mendacity

Synopsis

A family comes together to celebrate their patriarch’s birthday during a holiday feast when the secret is revealed that the man at the heart of the festivities is dying. The celebration becomes a crucible where everyone is forced in their turn to confront the lies, schemes, avarice, and the soft comfort of apathy they all wove for the sake of family’s power and themselves.

It is my intent to offer this bad boy up as a permafree stand alone novella set in the Akiniwazi universe. I shall keep you all updated.

Like this:

Brutal day of editing. The distractions have been quite large. On a positive note, I am up to Chapter 15 of 36, so things are going well. 4 long chapters done that were much more difficult than some previous ones. I find that irritating but whatcha gonna do? Am I right?

I was hoping to do the beta release Monday as ideal, but it may be a little after that. Depends on what I can get done as I make one last trip to the cottage today.

Okay, here’s the deal. I am looking for Beta Readers. I have a few confirmed, but I would like a small, comfortable herd of interested parties who would be willing to read and fill out a questionnaire (plus whatever other criticism they may have) on my latest edit of Reimarsoga. Remember, this is going to be a critical read, not just a fun read. (well okay, it will be fun if I have my druthers.)

Details! (I will provide final instructions in the email)

Start Date: No later than Oct 27th, 2016. (Date is currently pending the completion of latest edit, finalization of the map and questionnaire. It may come early.)

End Date: No later than Nov. 21st, 2016. (I need time to make changes before I send it to the editor for a January release).

Bonus Treat: Participants who complete the beta read will be eligible for a FREE COPY once the book is released currently planned for the 1st week of January! (I know, right?)

Space is limited, so please don’t be disappointed if you do not get in… Book 2 is right around the corner!

That’s it as I see it. If you have experience with editing, I am very interested in your input. Enthusiastic fans of Fantasy, Steampunk, Christian Fiction, Historical Fiction are strongly encouraged to apply.

To take the plunge, please reply the Contact page (extra linkypoo) and send a request through the email you wish the files to be sent to. If you do not receive a confirmation email, you have not been selected, or I did not get it. If that’s the case, try again before Oct 27th… cause I gotta put a hard deadline somewhere… and we’ll get it cleared up.

Once November starts, I will be focusing on my next Akiniwazi novel…la? I’m doing NaNoWriMo, so its goal is 50k words and the faster I finish that means bonus stuff for y’all.

Yep! I’m jumping on board, and have been torn between one of two concepts so far that I’m playing with doing.

But, despite it being one of the two that I’m going to pursue, here’s my plan.

I am going to adapt a classic movie/play to my fantasy setting, write it out as a novella and look at making it FREE to the public! As of this publication, I’m probably already doing a breakdown analysis of both to see which works best. As things progress, you will learn more.

Why free? Well, because reasons.

So, that’s part of why the big push to finish my third edit and get this off to the beta readers and start the process for the book cover et all before the end of the month. Maybe I’ll be lucky and find an editor that can slot me in before January too. That would be awesome. Well, we’ll see how that goes… but if all goes according to plan, and so far it has been following pretty true to form, we will have some nice surprises coming.

Keep watching, sign up for updates and more. Some good changes are a-comin’!

Update after writing this: I’ve settled on a concept for NaNoWriMo and the “Beta Reader Draft” is just flying along! Things are changing so fast!

Like this:

After the high of completing the second draft and getting some extremely positive feedback from an Alpha Reader, I’m about to embark on the next triad of actions, and I have to say, they scare me more than anything else that I’ve been up to so far.

Okay… well 2 out of the 3.

First, is prepping to send the book out to beta readers. I am still looking for a few willing to commit and have fun with the process. I know I’m making a big deal and possibly getting more input than I might need, but I’m looking for fans of the fantasy genre and if I can find someone in the industry who wants to offer an opinion, I’m really interested in that too. Forgive me, I don’t know any better.

This means that I am putting together the PDF, after I am done with the 3rd edit where I’m going to sweep through the book using a text to speech program, and another editorial bit of software to catch very difficult/clumsy, icky sections, problematic grammar and all that goop.

Once completed, and the beta readers are going through it all, I am going to have to start laying out my limited funds for a cover artist. The importance of having a stellar cover is so hard to understate. I just look at my own behavior when looking at books. Crap cover, I keep browsing. I don’t care how much the reviews say it’s awesome. Sad but true. The only time I don’t follow that is when I am more or less researching an author. Having done graphic design in the past, I have a very good eye for a pro cover, and will have to make sure this hits the quality I want.

Then probably a line editor. I wish I could get a developmental editor, but that’s too expensive for me and so I’m going to have to just trust my instincts and what my alpha/beta readers feedback provides. I perhaps waited too long to get one to hit my desired deadline, but that’s okay. I’ll look into pre-orders to help out with that if I can, once I learn how to set up my merchant pages and everything. Right now I can’t even handle thinking about that yet because I’m so ignorant of it all and have to learn more fast.

As an enticement for some people who may be interested, I desire to set up a free copy for those who volunteer and complete the beta read (questionnaire and all before the deadline). I’m also toying with doing a paperback, and possibly hardcover release (if I can find a service that does POD hardcovers… I haven’t researched it.) Beyond that, I’m just formulating things for my marketing and sales plan. Lots of ideas to come.

So now’s the time to hop on the bandwagon if you like what you see and think you want to be part of the final celebratory dash of this marathon. Sign up, and be a part of the fun!